Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Some thing wrong

Good morning,
It's eight o'clock in the morning , I know I should be at school, but the bridges are closed and there is a curfew .
At about 6:45AM, we heard plenty of bullets and explosions, I was checking my information because I have a history examination. My sister called us and said, please don't go to school. By then, we didn't know that the bridges are closed. But when we know we decided not to go to school and we began to call our friends and relatives and tell them not to go out from school or work.
So, I will not go to school, I will not take a history exam, huh.

Yesterday, I was unlucky in my examination *ooof* My marks are not good like the years before, any way I did my best and I understand the lesson and that's enough like my father said" I should not care if I have a bad mark when I understand the lesson"

I read this poem and want you to read it

When I Say...I am a Muslim

When I say. . .I am a Muslim,
I'm not shouting " down with Christians and Jews."
I am whispering "I seek peace,"
and Islam is the path that I choose.

When I say. . . I am a Muslim,
I speak of this with pride.
And confess that sometimes I stumble,
and need Allah to be my guide.

When I say. . .I am a Muslim,
I know this makes me strong.
And in those times when I am weak,
I pray to Allah for strength to carry on.

When I say. . . I am a Muslim,
I'm not boasting of success.
I'm acknowledging that Allah has rescued me,
and I cannot ever repay the debt.

When I say. . .I am a Muslim,
I'm not claiming to be perfect.
My flaws are indeed visible,
but Allah forgives because his followers are worth it.

When I say. . .I am a Muslim,
it does not mean I will never feel pain.
I still have my share of heartaches,
which is why I invoke Allah's name.

When I say. . .I am a Muslim,
I do not wish to judge.
I have no such authority
My duty is to submit to Allah's all-encompassing love.

29 comments:

Yeah, big problems in Mosul, Hinky. I'm worried and I hope you and Najma and Aya and everybody will be safe. You heard about the big attack on the army base and I am afraid there will be a lot of mess in Mosul for a while.

The poem was very nice! We need to see Islam from the inside, not just from the outside. For many people in the West, we see only anger and killing and it looks scary. So it helps to see how it feels when you are just thinking about Allah!

Careful, all of you be extra careful for a while. And a lot of people are praying for you, like you asked and your Mom asked.

Beautiful poem hnk! I can only hope that the sentiments in that poem guide your countrymen as they setup your government. Please stay safe and although I am not sure if you celebrate it, please accept from a Christian my wishes for a Very Merry Christmas and a safe and more peaceful new year for you, your family, and your country.

Sorry to hear about you being home from school. Like Jeff mentioned, you probably heard about the attack on the American base there - the news here said they were launching a major crackdown on "insurgents" in Mosul, which is probably why the bridges are closed.

That was a nice poem, I'm glad you posted it. I find it interesting that you could have done a search-and-replace to swap the word "Christian" for the word "Muslim" in that poem and it would be reflective of my beliefs also. Christianity and Islam are very similar in most of their beliefs and values.

Hnk, your father is a wise man. Understanding your lessons is more important that making a good grade. My favorite teacher was my Latin teacher in High School. She taught us a famous ancient quotation in Latin. The translation is "We learn not for school, but for life".

The words of this poem, about what it is to be a Muslim, sound very good. Other religions speak of peace or compassion or understanding. However, words mean nothing if people do not act upon them. I have known many people who claimed to be religious, and yet their actions were very different from their supposed beliefs.

I don't think anybody was accusing you of changing the words in the poem. I think their intent was to say how similar the beliefs of the two religions are. Regardless of where the poem came from or whether it was originally written with the word Christian or Muslim, it is beautiful and expresses very well what the true heart of either religion is. So often, people are convinced that all muslims hate christians or all christians want to attack muslims in the middle east. Poems like this let us see that there is alot less dividing us than we might otherwise believe.

Indeed it is a beautiful poem, hnk.Here is another source of it:http://www.muhajabah.com/poems/000098.htmcrediting its origin to poet Mohd Romi Hassan

The style of taking one poem or catch-phrase and changing words to similar words is sometimes called using "allegory". Other people call the taking of an entire poem and replacing words a "morph". Some poets or for copyrighted slogons (like "got Milk?") get upset when this happens to their material. But most do not. It is a perfectly acceptable way to craft a poem, and when you do you ARE making an allegory or comparison between the two things: in this case it strengthens the similarity between Christian and Muslim beliefs. :-)

Sorry if I wasn't clear before - I wasn't suggesting you replaced the word. I was just saying that the poem is very close to my own beliefs also (if you change it to put the word "Christian" everywhere you see the word "Muslim").

Hi HNK,That was a beautiful poem. Sometimes, I think, with all the news coverage of the Osama bin Ladin's, Al-Zarqawi's and others who use a religion for their own purposes, we forget what it is really all about. Thank you for reminding us so beautifully.

The poem is beautiful and I'm so glad you posted it! As others have mentioned, the words of the poem are equally true in expressing what Christians believe. It is unfortunate that many people choose to focus on the differences between Muslims and Christians, instead of choosing to focus on our shared beliefs. Whatever a person focuses on (thinks about and talks about) becomes magnified in their mind. If the majority of Muslims and Christians (all together there are over 3 billion of us) would focus on our shared beliefs, therefore magnifying what we have in common with each other, it would help to generate trust, compassion, and peace.

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